Everyone wants a good deal, and that’s perfectly fine! There’s nothing wrong with trying to save a few bucks whenever we can. As a matter of fact, there is no worse feeling than knowing you have paid more for a product than you should have. So, if there’s a way to save money while shopping, why not find out about it? Right? That’s why you’re trying to find out more about the Amazon price match policy.
The Amazon price match policy is a little bit tricky. While there are ways to get lower prices, knowing how to use them can be daunting. Hopefully, this article can help you understand how the Amazon price match policy works. First, what is price matching?
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What is Price Matching?
Price matching is one of the strategies that online retail stores use to win customers over. It is basically a price adjustment strategy where online marketplaces review competitors’ prices and match them by maintaining the same price level or going slightly lower.
All of this is in a bid to entice shoppers and make them more open to buying from the platform. If you were going to order a product at Walmart for $40, would you still buy from Walmart if you found it on Amazon for $35? Most likely not.
In the long run, price matching favors shoppers more while sellers are mostly on the receiving end of the price slashes and inevitable profit cuts. As a result, not all sellers are open to price matching with competitors. This is why not all online marketplaces have a price match policy, and price match policies vary across different platforms. So, does Amazon price match? Is there any hope of getting lower prices on Amazon as a shopper?
Does Amazon Price Match?
We all want to save money; it is just basic human nature. If we can pay less than we normally would and get the same quality of an item or even better, we will definitely grab the opportunity with both hands.
So, the million-dollar question that hangs on many people’s heads is this: does Amazon price match?
Unfortunately, Amazon does not price match. In the past, shoppers could email Amazon to notify them of a price drop on an already-purchased item if the price was marked down within 7 days after purchase. Amazon would then refund the price difference. This was often referred to as an Amazon price drop refund; however, the platform claims that the price drop refunds were never based on a policy.
Amazon decided to stop its price match policy completely in 2016. But don’t fret. Even though you can no longer get price drop refunds, there are still many ways for you to save money while shopping on the site. They want to make sure you are getting the best deals, too!
Tips and Tricks For Getting The Best Deals on Amazon
If you cannot get an Amazon price match after purchase, you should at least be able to save money through discounts and mouth watering deals, right? Definitely. There are a ton of ways to get the best deals on Amazon and a few of them are listed below.
Join coupon websites
There are websites whose sole purpose is to collect all the active and working coupons from the most popular online stores. You can search their database for active coupons and see if you can use them when you check out. It is not much, but they are often free to use and can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Add coupon browser extensions
One of the best ways to easily find the lowest prices is to install browser extensions that look for available coupons that are currently active on Amazon. Most coupon extensions can be installed for free and are easy to use.
Join Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is one of the best ways for you to get the best deals. For $139 a year, Prime provides a ton of benefits, discounts, and free shipping. When shipping costs reach a certain level, purchasing an Amazon Prime membership becomes worthwhile merely for the free shipping.
Pay Attention to the Daily Deals
Always make sure that you visit the “Today’s Deals” section. Some lightning deals often sell out in a few minutes, so make sure that you are always on the lookout for the most affordable deal available.
Use Price Tracking Tools
With price tracking tools, you can stay aware of current market prices and get alerts of even the slightest price drops on your favorite products. A couple of Amazon price tracking tools are listed below.
Amazon Price Tracking Tools
CamelCamelCamel
So, you don’t want to overpay for your purchase? Don’t fret. CamelCamelCamel is a simple price tracking tool that can help you stay updated on price drops and fluctuations. And you don’t even have to pay for it because it is a free-access site that helps buyers keep an eye on their favorite products.
Below are some ways that CamelCamelCamel can help you find the best prices:
Source: camelcamelcamel
Top Price Drops on Products: Using this feature, you can see and check the biggest price drop of any product you like, in any category you can think of. All you need to do is use the search bar to look for the specific product. Just as long as the duration of purchase is between the previous one to seven days, CamelCamelCamel can find it.
Related: Top 10 Best-selling Categories for 2024
Favorable Buy-it-Now Price: This tool also lets you select a product and indicate the “buy it now” price that you are willing to pay for it. To use this feature, enter the link to the product or a keyword related to the product you are interested in buying. After that, indicate the desired price that you are willing to pay. When the price comes down to the amount you indicated, CamelCamelCamel will alert you so that you can purchase the product at your preferred price.
Keepa
With a database containing the latest price history charts for over 190 million products, Keepa is another great tool that you can use to find the lowest prices.
Keepa allows you to continuously keep up with any price change update on products that you are interested in. And it is also very easy to use. All you have to do is enter a group of keywords related to the product you are looking for. You can also use the actual link of the product you want, and Keepa will alert and notify you every time its price changes. With this, you can easily hunt for the best prices.
If you want to see the products that have drastically reduced their prices at once, Keepa can help you find outstanding lightning deals and let you lock into purchasing them before anyone else.
However, unlike CamelCamelCamel, Keepa charges a monthly fee for users who want access to some of its more advanced features, such as price increase notifications and other features.
Source: Keepa
Tools such as CamelCamelCamel and Keepa are great for deal hunters who want to make the most of their money by getting the lowest price available. Even though Amazon price matching only applies to certain products, such as televisions, having access to these tools will allow you to save money by purchasing products only when they are at the lowest rate possible.
Earny
In contrast to Keepa and CamelCamelCamel, Earny is more versatile in finding the best possible deals. Aside from its price tracking capabilities and price drop alerts, Earny also scans your previous emails to look for products you previously bought. This is so that you can also track the prices of these items not only on AMZN but also on other online stores, like Walmart, Target, etc.
One of the things that people love about Earny is the cashback feature that allows you to get a cashback on previously purchased items. If the prices of items that you have already purchased go down, Earny will give you a refund on the difference. Now, this is what price matching looks like! All those aggravating moments when you see an item go on sale after you just bought it? Earny will handle that.
Another great thing about Earny is that it will alert you when you have late deliveries on the items you have bought from AMZN. This will allow you to get compensation, which is always great.
Because of all these perks, Earny’s service isn’t entirely free, but the subscription is reasonable. It costs only $4.99 / month or around $40 for the whole year. Early can be downloaded as a phone app and can be used as a browser extension, too.
Source: earny
Frequently Asked Questions About Amazon Price Match
How Does Amazon Maintain Low Prices?
Amazon has a very competitive pricing strategy. They seek to beat or match the lowest market prices on the products they sell before they are even listed. However, in the rare instance that Amazon couldn’t match a lower price on the market before it was listed, there is still something that you can try to do to get a match.
When you browse products, you might see a section named “product details.” This section contains a hidden method that you can use to try and persuade them to lower their prices even more. If you click on “product details,” you might see a link asking the question, “Would you like to tell us about a lower price?”. Clicking this link will open up a pop-up. This will allow you to fill out a form to persuade Amazon to lower the price.
Now, you still need to provide some information and proof that there is a similar, lower-priced item on another platform other than Amazon. While there is no guarantee that a match will happen, it is still worth trying. If your form submission is accepted, Amazon might lower the price of the product you submitted within the next few days.
Does Amazon Price Match After Purchase?
Although you can no longer do an Amazon price match after purchase in most categories, you can still do an Amazon price match after buying a television on Amazon. There’s no stated reason why televisions are the only exceptions to the rule, it’s just what it is.
If you manage to find a lower-priced television that is the same as the model you just bought, and your date of purchase is still within seven days, they will offer to refund you the difference. That’s the closest thing to an Amazon price match that customers can get.
All you have to do is navigate to the order detail page on your account. You will find a link saying “found a lower price?”, which will provide you with an avenue to submit the price adjustment. After that, they will check to see if your claim is valid and refund you the difference.
Below is a step-by-step instruction on how to do this workaround on the price match:
- Sign in to your AMZ account.
- Go to ‘Your Account.’
- Go to ‘Your Orders’ which can be accessed from the pullover menu.
- Select the product you want an Amazon price drop refund for.
- Click on the ‘Order Details.’
- A link marked ‘Found a lower price?’ will appear. Click it.
- Send the link to the lower-priced item.
- Send the cost of the lower-priced item.
- Click on ‘Confirm’, this will submit your application
Take note that this only works if you have purchased a television sold and shipped by Amazon. If the television you bought was sold by a third-party seller and is only available through FBA, this purchase will not be eligible for a price match.
Additionally, if you find a lower-priced item and you are still within the return period, you can opt to return the item you bought and ask for a refund. Not exactly an Amazon price match, but still better than nothing.
Does Amazon Have a Lowest Price Guarantee?
Some websites attract customers through their “lowest price guarantee” offer. They hope to get more sales by offering the best price available in the market, even if it means getting fewer profits.
Amazon, however, does not have a price match policy. But how about the lowest price guarantee? Do they offer this? While Amazon does not have a lowest-price guarantee, the retail giant always aims to provide the most competitive prices for all of its products.
Also, prices fluctuate at least 2.5 million times daily on Amazon. So, if you bought a product yesterday and checked today, you would most likely not see it listed for the exact same price. However, the price changes are usually not so significant.
Remember, price adjustment is still a competitive strategy. So, some Amazon sellers reprice from time to time based on their competitor prices (usually fellow Amazon sellers).
Finding The Hottest Products on Amazon with Zonbase
Whether you are a buyer who loves to shop and browse for an Amazon price match or an aspiring seller who would like to make money selling on Amazon, being able to find the hottest trending products is essential. As a buyer, it increases your chances of saving money on trending items that you otherwise would have missed out on. As a seller, on the other hand, knowing the bestselling products will allow you to see what items are in demand or popular among buyers.
When it comes to finding the bestselling products, ZonBase is one of the best software that you can use. Zonbase, provides more than 20+ tools and services that dig deep inside Amazon’s database to help uncover hard-to-access information. It is a powerful tool that can help you find the hottest products currently available.
One of Zonbase’s tools is the Hot Products tool, which allows users to find the top 100 most gifted items that also have an increasing sales trend.
If you are a buyer, this tool is great for finding the best items that you can gift to your family and friends, especially during Black Friday and Christmas. If you are a seller, this is an awesome product research tool that you can use to locate hidden gems that you can sell in your stores. You don’t need to look for an Amazon price match anymore with all the savings that Zonbase can give you.
Amazon Seller Specific’s for Amazon Price Matching
While the Amazon price match policy primarily benefits shoppers, it’s important to understand how it impacts Amazon sellers as well. Sellers on Amazon operate within a highly competitive marketplace, where pricing plays a crucial role in attracting customers and driving sales. Here’s how the Amazon price match policy is relevant for Amazon sellers:
- Competitive Pricing: The absence of a formal price match policy on Amazon means that sellers have more control over their product prices. They can strategically set their prices based on various factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, demand, and profit margins. By setting competitive prices, sellers can attract customers and increase their chances of making sales.
- Pricing Strategy: Amazon sellers need to develop effective pricing strategies to stay competitive. While they cannot rely on Amazon’s price match policy, they can still monitor the prices of their competitors and adjust their own pricing accordingly. By using price tracking tools like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa, sellers can stay informed about market trends, price fluctuations, and adjust their prices in response to maintain a competitive edge.
- Buy Box Advantage: The Buy Box is a coveted feature on Amazon that significantly boosts a seller’s visibility and sales potential. One of the key factors that influence the Buy Box placement is pricing. Sellers with competitive prices are more likely to win the Buy Box, which gives them a significant advantage over other sellers offering the same product. Winning the Buy Box helps sellers gain increased exposure and higher sales volumes.
In summary, although Amazon does not have a price match policy, the pricing strategies employed by sellers are crucial for their success on the platform. By setting competitive prices, monitoring market trends, winning the Buy Box, and implementing effective promotional strategies, sellers can navigate the competitive landscape on Amazon and drive sales.
Conclusion
You can always get a good deal on Amazon even without a price match policy in place. Amazon’s prices are usually the most affordable, and you can be sure of purchasing quality products there. But if you want additional discounts, you should use price tracking tools and be on the look out for random promotions. Also, take advantage of massive discount periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
